The Oxford Phasmatological Society was an organisation from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

that investigated

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

phenomena. It lasted from 1879-1885. It is considered to have been the first psychical research society.Haileybury Register, 1862-1887. Edited by L. S. Milford, M. A. Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons, 1887. p. 58 It was founded by Edward Ridley and F. C. S. Schiller, with

Charles Oman Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. Occasionally his ...

, who served as one of its four presidents. Arthur Headlam also served as president. Similarly to the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to co ...

formed in 1882, it collected and investigated reports of ghosts, hauntings, and

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

phenomena.Hearnshaw, Leslie Spencer. (1964). ''A Short History of British Psychology: 1840-1940''. Barnes & Noble. p. 158 Meetings were held in the rooms of Schiller at

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

.Anonymous. (1885). ''The Phasmatological Society''. ''

The Oxford Magazine ''The Oxford Magazine'' is a review magazine and newspaper published in Oxford, England.''The Oxford Magazi ...

''. p. 258

Publications

*''Selections from the Papers of the Phasmatological Society'' (1882)

Publications

References

Further reading